Muhammad: Birth to Ministrythe legendary miracles surrounding Amina's pregnancy, see Guillaume,
Muhammad, p. 69, cf. New Light, p. 19.
[4] Other versions also state that Abdullah lived until Muhammad was either 7 months or 28 months old; see Ibn Sad, Classes, vol. 1, 1, p. 108.
General opinion is that `Abdullah died before Muhammad's birth.
[5] For the alleged miracles surrounding Muhammad's birth and suckling,
see Guillaume, Muhammad, pp. 69 f; Ibn Sa`d, Classes, vol. 1, 1, pp. 111 f,
121 f, 170 f. The Qur'an makes no mention of such miracles and in the
earliest traditions, Muhammad never refers to such as a confirmation of his
calling. The development of Islamic hadith ascribing miracles to
Muhammad appears to have been a reaction to the later polemic of Jews
and Christians; see ECMD, p. 724.
[6] Guillaume, Muhammad, p. 69; Ibn Sa`d, Classes, vol. 1, 1, p. 110.
According to Islamic tradition, this year is thought to have been 570 AD.
Western scholars, although maintaining that Muhammad was born c. 570
AD, have shown that the Year of the Elephant must have occurred earlier
than this date. See p. 12, n. 57 above.
[7] Guillaume, Muhammad, p. 72; Ibn Sa`d, Classes, I, 1, pp. 123 f, 170 f.
The historian Tabari places this event after Muhammad's call; see History,
vol. 6, p. 75.
[8] Buhl, Muhammeds, p. 117; EI², s.v. "Muhammad," p. 362.
[9] Guillaume, Muhammad, p. 73; Ibn Sa`d, Classes, vol. 1, 1, p. 129.
[10] Guillaume, Muhammad, pp. 73 f, 79; Ibn Sa`d, Classes, vol. 1, 1,
p. 132.
[11] For the various Islamic narrations of the following meeting with the
monk, see Guillaume, Muhammad, pp. 79 f; Ibn Sa`d, Classes, vol. 1, 1,
p. 134; Tabari, History, vol. 6, pp. 44 f. See n. 22, below.